Vincenzo Natali and the Alien

a)Growing up with Alien
Alien
was a movie that influenced Vincenzo enormously and meant a great deal
to him as he grew up. He was about ten or eleven when it came out, he
desperately wanted to see it but wasn't allowed because of the Canadian cinema
rating systems that were similar to the United Kingdom's. And so this
forced him to have to voraciously read everything that he could about
the movie, and that would lead him to knowing a great deal about the
film

b)Seeing the film and his response
It
would be some years before he caught Alien on the big screen, but when
he did, he was amazed. What astonished him was that he found himself to
be afraid, and although he knew every detail about the film, it still
frightened him. He thought the reasons for this were actually twofold,
one one hand he found it to be just so well constructed almost like a
perfect movie, it was so clean, simple and precise. On the other
hand, just as great horror films do, it touched on things that were
taboo and disturbing. With Alien, he thought it had something to do with
the concept of having something growing inside of you. He thought that
the core of the film was about rape, and that was why it was so
disturbing, because that's basically what the alien did. While in more
traditional horror and monster movies, the monster eats its victims.
Here in Alien, it impregnated them.

c)Awareness of its history
He
was aware that Ron Cobb did all the spaceship design, and everything
that was related to the human beings and meanwhile, Giger did everything
related to the aliens. And on top of that he was aware of the other
great artists involved in the film such as Jean Giraud (Moebius) and
Chis Foss. And so it was this group that were working on Alexandro
Jodorowsky's production of Dune which lasted, the project lasted from
1974-1976. (although Ron Cobb didn't actually get involved with the
project but Dan O'Bannon was doing what he could to get him aboard
before the production folded. ) And Dan O'Bannon the visual effects
supervisor on that movie, wrote the Alien script and brought that team
of artists from Dune to Alien.

d) Urge to make an alien filmDespite 1998 rumours that he was in talks to make an Alien V movie, it's not presently clear if he's ever been approached to make one, but his expressed view is that everyone should get to make their own Alien movie

Source Quotes

Film-makers on film: Vincenzo Natali (Filed: 13/09/2003)

Mark Monahan talks to Vincenzo Natali on Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)

Click here for the film-makers on film archive

For
many British film fans born in or around 1970, one poster at that
decade's close leapt off billboards like no other. It bore only the
image of a strange-looking egg, cracking ominously above a
strange-looking lattice; the single word "Alien"; and the simple dictum,
"In space no one can hear you scream". Lady in waiting: Sigourney Weaver, star of Ridley Scott's Alien

You
didn't know quite what was going on, but you knew this much: that this
was Star Wars for grown-ups, that you ached to see it, and that you
hadn't a hope of doing so. Things were clearly as hard on the other side
of the Atlantic.

"Alien is a movie that influenced me enormously and meant a great deal to me growing up," says writer-director Vincenzo Natali.

"I
desperately wanted to see it, when I was 10 or 11, but I wasn't allowed
to because we have a similar ratings system in Canada to yours. And
that's why I know so much about the movie, because that made me read
everything I could about the film. I was just voracious.''

It was
some years before Natali - the man behind the startling Cube, and the
exceptional new high-tech thriller Cypher (on general release) - finally
managed to catch Alien on the big screen, but, when he did, he was
amazed. "I was afraid," he says. "I knew every detail about that film,
and it still frightened me. That was what astonished me about it.''

Certainly,
Ridley Scott's breathtaking sci-fi slasher has always exhibited a rare
ability to frighten - on the 20th viewing as much as the first.

"I
think the reasons for that are twofold," says Natali. "On one hand,
it's just so well constructed, almost a perfect movie - it's so clean,
simple and precise. And I also think it touches on things, as all great
horror films do, that are taboo and disturbing. With Alien, I think it
has something to do with the concept of having something growing inside
of you.''

The unwilling incubator for the alien is Kane (John
Hurt), one of a crew of seven on a deep-space cargo ship who follow what
they believe is a distress call to a remote planet. In the first of two
famous scenes that act as struts for the entire movie, a creature welds
itself to Kane's face, planting inside him an embryonic monster that
later erupts unforgettably from his chest, and then proceeds to pick off
the other crew members.

"I think that at its core the film is
about rape," says Natali, "and that's why it's so disturbing, because
that's basically what the alien does. In more traditional horror movies
or monster movies, the monster eats its victims. Here, it impregnates
them.''

Natali also attributes Alien's power to the contribution
of the brilliant and (by all accounts) rather eccentric Swiss-born
designer HR Giger, and to the decision - typical of the care that went
into the film - to divide it, visually, right down the middle. "Ron Cobb
did all the spaceship design, everything that related to human beings,
and Giger did everything related to aliens. "But, there were
other great artists involved in the film - in addition to those two, it
had Jean Giraud and Chris Foss. All of them were working on Alexandro
Jodorowsky's version of Dune, which was being developed in 1974-6. That
film fell apart, and Dan O'Bannon, the visual effects supervisor on that
movie, who also happened to be the screenwriter of Alien, brought that
team on to Alien.''

What O'Bannon also brought to the film was
the experience of having worked with director John Carpenter on Dark
Star (1974). This wasn't a horror movie, and was made for $60,000 -
less, probably, than the sandwich bill for Alien - yet it was to have a
profound effect on Ridley Scott's movie.

"Where every other film
about space travel made it seem like a grand, epic voyage, Dark Star was
the first that tried to make it seem mundane. Alien does that too. I
think it was very clever in the way it made the characters basically
truckers in outer space, and therefore treated the whole notion of space
travel realistically.''

Similarly realistic was O'Bannon's
script for Alien, further enhanced by producer Walter Hill, and
beautifully rendered by the seven-strong cast that (in addition to Hurt)
included Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm and the then-unknown Sigourney
Weaver.